hunterbishop.com

Keola Downing has arranged to bring back Gov. Linda Lingle's East Hawaii Advisory Council to Puna to hear a discussion of roundabouts with a renowned roundabout expert Eric Worrell, an engineer with the Hawaii Division of the Federal Highway Administration.

Thursday's meeting follows up on September's meeting when about 125 people came to the Makuu farmers market, many with testimonies about frequent traffic congestion and crashes on Route 130, only to receive a disappointing response to their concerns from the DOT. One of the resident-suggested improvements that got some traction at the meeting, however, was the installation of roundabouts to make intersections safer, but state transportation officials are hesitant to alter their existing plan, which is simply to widen Route 130 to four lanes from Keaau to Pahoa by 2017.

Downing, who coordinates work on alternative transportation corridors for the Puna Community Development Plan, said this in an e-mail:

"We hope that this more or less direct contact with the Governor will help us to place the resolution to problems along the highways and roadways in Puna higher up on the 'must do' list for the State Department of Transportation. Our public input to the Puna Community Development Plan included many references to the use of modern roundabouts, and this is our time to submit our public input on this important subject."

Let's hope the presentation is interesting enough to keep the Advisory Council awake this or Gov. Lingle may never get the message. Find out yourself. The meeting is Thursday, Feb. 22, 6-9 p.m. at the Keaau Elementary School cafeteria.